FWIW: Comparison of "1:48" seated figures for passenger cars. My conclusion is to buy cheap!

I used the same Evemodel figures on a recent interior detail upgrade to my Atlas O RBM&N passenger cars. Couldn’t be happier. Great price for 100 figures, and they fit really good!

I recently added people to my passenger station. I bought some WS, Bachman, and BEEP people. The WS are the largest by far, Bachman about right IMHO, and the BEEPs are shrimps.

Agreed that less expensive figures are fine for passenger cars.

Bob

Except for your own satisfaction , even with unrealistically bright cars, usually moving at speed, who gets down with a jeweler's optic to carefully scrutinize passengers.

Although I repaint A lot of the seated figurines, to period appropriate colors The cheap ones work just fine . to populate 32 passenger cars, its just cost effective to buy them a hundred at a time

Unless it's for a special car, I load them up with the folks from China. For my club car and diner, I printed my own (including waiters, porters, conductors and kitchen staff). "Extra fare" stuff and all...

@hokie71 posted:

It has been a few years since I populated passenger cars and I remembered thinking that what I had at the time was inconsistent. This time around I have about 10 cars to do and thought I would try to document the bang for the buck comparison.  "For your consideration" (as Rod Serling would say), here is what I purchased, ranging from $0.75 each (K-line set on the big auction site) to $0.18 (on the big river site) for comparison.

The first picture shows examples of the two figures, the expensive ones are on the right, cheap on the left. Both are advertised as 1;48. Size matters but the ones on the left look ok in the cars (even if I have to amputate some feet, occasionally).  I can use a sharpie to add facial features at the cost difference.  The trick obviously is don't sit them next to each other in the same car to accentuate the differences.

My conclusion is to buy cheap; the difference at 4X is not worth it. If these were going on park benches, my conclusion might be a bit different- but probably not at this cost difference.

Thanks for posting this information.  Although I try to keep abreast of what's available, I wasn't aware of the Evemodel line of figures.  They're listed as 1:50 scale and there are obviously some compromises regarding detail, but IMO they're close enough for most situations.

This topic is going to cost me some money, but not nearly as much as some threads...

@Mallard4468 posted:

Thanks for posting this information.  Although I try to keep abreast of what's available, I wasn't aware of the Evemodel line of figures.  They're listed as 1:50 scale and there are obviously some compromises regarding detail, but IMO they're close enough for most situations.

This topic is going to cost me some money, but not nearly as much as some threads...

My bad, they are 1:50 which you would think would make them smaller than the 1:48?  I was surprised to find them on the big river site at a more competitive price than the auction site. 

I just finished populating my passenger cars. Yep, lowest priced figures at the right size makes sense. I’m guessing 10% are whole, 80% don’t have feet, and around 10% are cut off at the knees.

I recommend wehonest. They have 30 sitting 1:48 Painted Passenger Figures in 10 poses per box for $15 on eBay. There are also 8 separate lots available, so if you order more than one you will get different colors. They are very nice figures that come well packaged. Since they are coming from China, they take a while to arrive, about 4-6 weeks as I recall.

Pat

Here's a K-line set with figures (from a previous owner). A little large IMHO but the car isn't scale either so....

These two characters are from MTH and required surgery to fit in a Lionel F3 cab.

I've purchased from Wehonest and they are a good value. Yes- shipping takes time.

For the engineer figures to fit in my GP9 cab I had to cut off arms on one side and the leg on one of them. I couldn’t fit them in seats so they’re just standing, glued to the side. They both have arms sticking out and look pretty good actually. They were Bachmann engineer figures.

@RSJB18,

Is that a custom made cab interior for your F3?  Is that a Lionel F3 as well?

@texgeekboy posted:

@RSJB18,

Is that a custom made cab interior for your F3?  Is that a Lionel F3 as well?

It's a Lionel F3 interior. I didn't realize that the control stand was a separate part so instead of placing another order, I fab'd one out of some scrap styrene.

Yes- this is a Lionel F3 AA set from the early 90's with pullmor motors (6-18177). I've been upgrading the set with an ERR AC commander and sounds, and all new LED lighting.

Yeah, I’m following your thread on that. I just wanted to make sure. Thanks.

@hokie71 posted:

My bad, they are 1:50 which you would think would make them smaller than the 1:48?  I was surprised to find them on the big river site at a more competitive price than the auction site.

Real people come in a variety of sizes too.  And we all know that "scale" is a flexible concept in the 3-rail world.

As stated above, many seated figures need either amputations or butt reductions to fit in their seats and also have their heads at window height.  MTH figures are undersized but work well in most passenger cars (no surgery needed).  Most mass produced figures are painted in bright/neon colors with glossy paint, so repainting is recommended.  I use mostly cheap craft paints.  Pastel colors or browns, black, green, or blue look the best.  You can convert any color to pastel by mixing in some white.  I probably go overboard in detail, but at the very least one should cover the bright colors, paint over the bug eyes, and get rid of the shine.  Those features will not look right, even in a moving passenger car.

I use a variety of figures from different manufacturers (MTH, Beep People, GGD Little People, Ebay and Amazon figures from China) and paint around 8 figures at a time, painting in this order:

1. skin color  2. shirts, pants, dresses  3. vests, jackets, shoes  4.  Hair, hats

Here are some completed figures.  I fill my cars around 20-25% to keep reasonable the amount of painting I need to do.  I still ended up painting 120 figures for my 9 car Aerotrain.

This photo shows the bright colors and shine that is common with the cheap figures.  These are Beep People.  They are too large for most passenger cars, so they needed the butt surgery.  Yes, that is a genuine surgical scalpel!

In more visible areas of the layout, I would not use any of these figures, but instead use the more detailed (and pricey) Artistta and Preiser figures, or some of the newer 3D printed figures.

I have 8 more passenger trains to go (mostly 21" cars) . . . so maybe 30 passengers per car, 8 cars per train, times 8 trains . . . only 1,920 more to paint! Fortunately, I just retired.

Bob

He is referring to amazon

@RRDOC posted:

He is referring to amazon

Guess I didn’t hit delete fast enough😳😳🙁🙁🙁

Anyway, what should you use to anchor 1:50 scale butts to their seats?

I use a hot glue gun, put a blob on their butt and press into the seat.

Bob